At ZME Science, Rupendra Brahambhatt reports on the world’s ongoing landmine problem. Cambodia, for example, has a population of 17 million people but 4 to 6 million landmines. While a mine may cost only $30 to plant, it can cost up to $1000 to remove, using conventional methods.

A nonprofit named Apopo came up with an unusual but cost-effective approach to mine riddance:

Under their initiative, HeroRATs, they train rats to sniff out mines in various Asian and African countries. Recently, Ronin, one of their hero rats, broke the Guinness World Record for the most landmines detected by a rat.

“Ronin has detected an impressive 109 landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO), surpassing the previous record held by the legendary HeroRAT Magawa, who identified 71 landmines and 38 UXOs during his five-year service,” the Apopo team notes.”

“This Rat Found 109 Landmines and Just Broke a World Record,” May 5, 2025

Brahambhatt points out that rats have a much better sense of smell than humans. Specifically, they can detect trace amounts of trace amounts of explosives like TNT.

Ronin and her rodent colleagues are African giant pouched rats who begin training a few weeks after birth to get them used to working with humans. But their lives are not all work; they only sniff mines for about half an hour in the morning.

Here’s another human-rat partnership project that detects mines in Mozambique: